Litchfield is back in business. Everyone is back to work now that a private company took over the prison, and that includes the inmates. But job satisfaction is pretty low. Piper says that electrical is unmanageable without Nicky keeping a running commentary, and Flaca says she has the drive and ambition to do more with her job than scrub pans in the kitchen, even if she gels with her kitchen coworkers.

So when the inmates catch on that the company running the prison is going to be introducing a new, higher paying job (of $1 an hour), everyone scrambles for a chance at it. To qualify for the new job, without even knowing what the job is, the inmates have to take a test that will evaluate their aptitude and personality.

... Only the test is a complete sham, and no one will even read their answers. The entire process of testing the women is a ruse to make the women upset with themselves instead of the administration when they don't get picked for the new job. That is so twisted! (And probably a great metaphor for what happens to women, all the time, everywhere. Blame yourself for not being good enough, girls! The system works just fine.)

Taystee creates her own ruse to shift the blame off of her when she steals Poussey’s hooch and doesn’t tell her. Poussey assumes animals broke into her stash and goes on the hunt for drunk squirrels, but in reality, Taystee took it to keep Poussey from drinking too much, too often.

Deception winds through almost all of the inmates’ stories in this episode, as Red continues her flirtation with Healy to get back into the kitchen and Norma performs Santeria magic on her own as if it were her history and customs. “Ideas are better than reality,” Suzanne says, when she’s warning Taystee not to tell the truth to Poussey too soon. But reality always catches up to the women of Litchfield.

Flaca’s flashbacks show how she sold counterfeit drugs at school when her boyfriend wouldn’t share the real stuff. Her drugs, like her mother’s fake Calvin Klein dress and Poussey’s booze, look close enough to the real thing that people will use it without thinking twice. People will believe what you tell them, Flaca’s mother says. But even though the drugs weren’t real, the consequences are. One boy that goes to Flaca’s school has a reaction to the drugs and jumps off the roof of the school. It doesn’t matter if his high was real or imagined because he ends up in the hospital all the same, and Flaca ends up charged with fraud and endangerment. “This can’t be real,” Flaca says, as cops put handcuffs on her and take her away from her home.

But that’s the hard truth that all the inmates have learned in Litchfield: Reality catches up with you, every single time.

Other notes:

Inmate of the episode is Norma, who says so much with just a few looks. She’s wonderful, and I love her.

Sewing is definitely a skill that takes practice, and sewing lingerie is way difficult. There are tiny stitches and tricky fabrics, and if it’s the first thing you have ever sewed, I do not see this going well right away for everyone.